"Offense taken," she says seriously. Her blue eyes regard me coldly, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

“If she kills you, can I let some of my rats crash in your former room?” Mireen asks. “Mine is getting kind of crowded.”

I squint. “How many rats have you adopted, exactly?”

“Not important,” Mireen sits back, hands folded as she whistles innocently.

Beck puts an arm around Brunhild’s shoulder. He's big enough that even she looks small beside him, but she's nearly a head taller than me and looks like she could snap me in half. "Don't mind Nessa. She's just a little paranoid. Thinks everybody wants to kill us. But that's only because a lot of people here have tried to kill her. You could argue it even makes sense, from her point of view."

"She makes offense. That's what she makes," Brunhild says.

"Okay, I'm just going to say it," Mireen says. "Brunhild already looks like she wants to smash Nessa into little pieces. I don't know if that's the best quality in a fifth member of our group."

"Or," Beck says, eyebrows high. "Hear me out... the fact that she's not trying to hide wanting to crush Nessa a little bit is exactly why we can trust her. If she was with Malakai, she'd be sneakier than that, right? She'd be playing nice right now and trying to weasel her way onto our team. Then during the Crucible, she'd spring her trap."

"I hate to say this," Ambrose says. "But that actually does make some sense."

"Maybe we make group of four," Brunhild says, her deep voice heavily accented, though I can't place where it's from. I wonder if it's from somewhere distant, maybe even off the main continent. "We take the small one with big ass, drop her out window, and then we find stronger replacement?"

"Big ass?" I blurt. The only thing keeping me from laughing is the fear that Brunhild might actually try to throw me out a window.

“She’s not wrong,” Mireen says with a shrug.

"Uh," Beck says. "I love the enthusiasm and creative problem solving Brunhild, that's one of my favorite things about you. But Nessa stays. We like her."

"Hm," Brunhild says, blue eyes assessing me. "If sexy bear likes her, then Brunhild will like her. It is settled."

Ambrose sputters with laughter. I look his way, biting back my own smile as I see him mouth the words "sexy bear"?

"Alright, sexy bear," Mireen says, barely keeping a straight face. "Why don't you take Brunhild back to where you found her for now. We'll keep her in mind as a potential fifth."

Beck gives a thumbs up and leads Brunhild out of the common room. Before they're out of view, Brunhild takes a generous handful of Beck's left butt-cheek.

Classy.

"Are we sure we can trust Beck's intelligence?" Ambrose asks once he's gone. "I'm starting to worry he's getting dumber by the day."